Pop stars, parades, sinners… and you!

“My husband Wayman is a musician. Recently we attended a concert featuring a violinist who has toured with a particularly infamous pop star. After the concert we had a wonderful opportunity to chat with her (the violinist, not the infamous pop star!).

“I don’t know how we got on the subject of Jesus, but my husband has a way of turning conversations with strangers into opportunities to talk about our Lord in a matter of seconds. Judy was particularly excited to hear about my work with Jews for Jesus. She told us about her church, and that her own pastor was from a Jewish background. I was impressed by Judy’s choice to work in such a dark world for the love of sharing her faith. She admitted that it had been difficult, but she tried very hard to let her light shine in that dark world. She saw it as her mission field.

“Not long after, I was handing out gospel tracts at a concert featuring that very pop star whose violinist we had met. Many of her fans wore costumes that showed quite a lot of skin, the people who were wearing them appeared spiritually lost.

“Two young men who were also handing out gospel tracts approached me. It was a blessing to meet others who were planting gospel seeds among the thousands waiting to get into the concert that night.

“I mentioned the violinist who had been on tour with this star, and how she’d had opportunities to share her faith. One of the men’s responses surprised me. ‘I highly doubt that any true Christian would actually perform with her!’

“I reminded him that Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and that if we are going to reach the lost, we have to walk, and sometimes work, among them. He agreed, and we parted.

“I thought of Mark 2:16–17, ‘And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”‘

“Jesus commanded us to go into the world and proclaim the gospel. He didn’t think it shameful to walk among sinners, and neither should we!”

Lynn’s report reached our headquarters right around the time that our Israel team was doing an outreach at the annual Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv. We told our friends about this outreach via RealTime.* Many friends promised to pray and were glad that we were reaching out at this event. A few chided us. One man wrote:

“There are some things that are just so vile and disgusting that believers should be nowhere near it. This is one of those things. The abominable acts that go on at such events are no place for followers of Yeshua. He saved the woman caught in adultery from being stoned to death, but He didn’t go into the bedroom to save her. There are other ways to get the message out without defiling yourself.”

What can we say? Wisdom requires any believer to examine him or herself honestly to avoid situations that might cause temptation. But believers are not defiled by mere proximity to those who are defiling themselves. Not as long as we remain in even closer proximity to God, His Word and others who know and love Him. We need to approach people as the forgiven sinners we are, offering the same salvation we have received!

*RealTime is the most up-to-date Jews for Jesus news; you can find it on our website at http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/realtime where you can expect to see new stories every week. If you subscribe to RealTime you will get email reminders to check the latest stories on this site. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be notified of each new story.

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